Anne Bradstreet’s prologue provides a uniquely introspective look into the psyche of a female poet grappling with an industry that consistently turned deaf ears to her and other womens’ work. Composed of 8 sestains with ABABCC rhyme scheme, this poem–despite reading and in its time behaving much like a journal entry in many respects–has clearly withstood the test of time for its messaging and clever writing and is best consumed by the masses. Bradstreet’s lines evoke meaning and critique an oppressive culture through self-deprecating sarcasm. She opens the first stanza talking about singing of “wars, of captains, and of kings” (1) and how she and her “obscure verse shall not so dim their worth” (6), essentially saying she isn’t worthy of writing about things of importance, and that by doing so she will somehow taint them and their legacy. In several stanzas Bradstreet references and compares herself to the Greeks and the nine Greek sister goddesses (muses) in order to further emphasize her inferiority. In stanza 4, she writes: “Nor can I, like that fluent sweet-tongued Greek / Who lisped at first, speak afterwards more plain.” (19-20). Similarly, in stanza 7 she writes: “Let Greeks be Greeks, and women what they are, / Men have precedency, and still excel;” (37-38).
Ultimately, I interpreted this poem as Bradstreet’s attempt to channel her frustration into writing and in doing so inspire change and open-mindedness surrounding female poets. I took the intent behind the emphasization of female inferiority to be an attempt to point out the absurdity of this perspective, and articulating this point in this way essentially kills two birds with one stone, drawing attention to an important issue and demonstrating that Bradstreet/a woman is capable of getting a message across in a nuanced way. While it’s certainly also possible that Bradstreet was simply an incredible poet that was merely using poetry as a means to get out frustration and didn’t intend to have her words be read centuries later or act as a catalyst for change, the fact remains that this poem is poignant, clever, and sadly still relevant.
